Fishing Report: June 27, 2014

Friday

Jun 27, 2014 at 2:00 AM

COASTWIDE - Forecasts for 20-knot winds today and Sunday will bring 6-foot swells and some choppy seas that might not be great for casual ocean anglers, but there are no smallcraft advisories issued so far for the weekend.

Bottomfishers must stay within the 30-fathom line to protect yelloweye rockfish.

Near-shore jigging should be very good for lingcod and black rockfish when conditions allow. Black, white or red jigs are always good bets.

The marine aggregate limit in Oregon is seven rockfish a day. The lingcod limit is two a day with a 22-inch minimum, and that is separate from the marine aggregate. Anglers can keep cabezon starting Tuesday.

The ocean is open now for both chinook and fin-clipped coho salmon, and catches have been decent for cohos, but plenty of wild fish are getting released.

Clammers will have good morning minus tides today and Saturday, but they will see those advantages taper off throughout the remainder of the week. The entire Oregon Coast is now closed to recreational mussel harvest because of elevated levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning. All other recreational shellfish harvesting is open.

Today sport-fish managers will meet to discuss adding July 3-5 to the spring all-depth halibut season. Enough of the spring quota likely remains for these days to be added.

COOS BAY - Bottomfish catches have been excellent this past week, with chinook salmon fishing a little slow. More than half the deep-water halibut anglers from last week caught fish. Tuna remain about 25 miles offshore, but winds have kicked up and kept anglers from venturing that far. Crabbing has improved to fair. Many red rock crabs in the Charleston area have been tagged as part of a study. Anyone who catches one is urged to call state fish biologists at 541-888-5515.

Clamming is excellent during low tides near Charleston, off Cape Arago Highway and Clam Island, with good morning minus tides predicted Wednesday and Thursday.

BROOKINGS - Chinook catches fell off as winds kicked up. Most of the action has been near the Oregon/California border. The fin-clipped coho salmon season is open now, as well. Excellent fishing for bottomfish has been the norm when anglers have been able to get out of port, with big lingcod still a regular part of the catches.

GOLD BEACH - Surfperch fishing has been very good, and rockfish catches have been excellent when anglers have been able to cross the bar. Smelt have entered the lower bay, where chinook fishing is nearly nonexistent.

AGATE - The lake is down to 68 percent full and dropping quickly. The warmwater fishery is really taking over. Crappie, bass and bluegill are active around submerged willows and along the dam. Fish worms or small spinners or crankbaits. Most of the bass are in the shallows along the lake's edges, with higher up better. Wind-drifting worms has worked well for a mixture of species, primarily yellow perch. No gas motors are allowed. Small electric motors are legal.

APPLEGATE - The lake is fishing well for holdover rainbow trout 10 to 14 inches long, and it received another complement of 12,000 legal-sized trout less than two weeks ago. Trolling has been good off points and in the lower section of the reservoir. All the boat ramps are open. The lake was down to 16 feet from full but dropping slowly despite a small uptick in water releases to the Applegate River on Thursday.

DIAMOND - Fishing for trout is best early in the morning, and then it tapers off quite a bit during the day. Catches were light during last week's Rainbow $5,000 trout-fishing derby. Most of the action is still-fishing with worms under bobbers, PowerBait or the old standby, Velveeta cheese. Action has improved at the northwest end of the lake, but most effort remains in the south end in 12 to 15 feet of water. Vary your depth and get mobile if you're not catching fish every half-hour. Trolling is slow and won't pick up until the water warms some. The limit is eight trout per day longer than 8 inches, but only one can be longer than 20 inches.

EMIGRANT - No new rainbow trout were planted this week, and the lake is turning into a warmwater fishing show. Plastic worms and grubs are working best, around structure early and late in the day, with pink and purple crappie jigs finding crappie in the Songer Wayside area. Trout fishing is slow but best at creek mouths where cooler water can be found. The lake has been holding steady this past week and was listed Thursday at 63 percent full.

EXPO - The pond was stocked two weeks ago with rainbow trout, and that will be it for the season, so look for anglers to pick them out this week before hot weather moves in. Small Panther Martin spinners, worms and PowerBait have worked well for rainbows. Plenty of bluegill and perch to play with, as well.

FISH - The lake received another 3,000 legal-sized rainbows this week, boosting and already solid action there. Fishing is very good for a mix of trout and chinook salmon, mainly around the resort and the Forest Service boat ramp or in the center of the lake. Tiger trout must be released unharmed. Chinook are legally considered trout and can be kept as part of the five-trout daily limit. The chinook are in 12- to 14-inch range. The lake was under three-fourths full Thursday.

HOWARD PRAIRIE - The lake is still-fishing fairly well early in the morning and late in the evening for rainbow trout and very good for bass during the day. Trolling, especially in the morning, is still producing good catches of rainbows. Triple Teasers or Wedding Rings with worms are always hot bets, with or without flashers. Most of the trout are 10 to 14 inches, with another group at 18-plus inches. The lake is listed at 47 percent full and dropping. Most of the still-fishing is in deeper water now that warmer weather has moved in. Low water is making fishing from the resort's jetty difficult. Bank fishing around Klum Landing and Grizzly is fair to good, but only the resort ramp and the Klum Landing ramp reach the water.

HYATT - The lake is down to 35 percent full, making the BLM boat ramp unusable for larger boats but OK for cartoppers or other small boats. Anglers are not catching lots of rainbows but the trout are nice and fat. Several 16- to 18-inch fish have been caught by trollers slowly working around submerged trees or the old creek channel.

LEMOLO - The lake was recently stocked with rainbow trout. Expect good fishing for rainbows and brown trout while trolling lures in about 15 feet of water but very far behind the boat. Some decent kokanee catches have been reported, as well.

LOST CREEK - Anglers are returning after a three-week hiatus now that the blue-green algae bloom is dissipating. Another batch of legal-sized rainbow trout were stocked three weeks ago, and they will be available for trollers near the dam and straight out from the marina. Bass fishing is very good with a mix of crankbaits and plastics. The lake is down to 22 feet shy of full, which is about where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expected it to be in late June.

LAKE of the WOODS - Green or black Wedding Rings are working well when trolled for rainbow trout, while pink ones are knocking the kokanee well. Still-fishing with PowerBait from the bank has been good for trout, especially early. Bass are thick in the shallows and night fishing for catfish is good.

WILLOW - Fishing from the bank with PowerBait or worms has been good around the resort and directly across from the county boat ramp. Very little trolling has occurred, but trollers could try Tasmanian Devils or Triple Teasers, or wind-drift worms in the afternoon.

SELMAC - Fishing for trout improved after another 2,000 legal-sized rainbows were planted just before Free Fishing Weekend. Bass fishing is definitely heating up in the shallows.

ROGUE - The spring chinook salmon bite in the upper Rogue has tapered off with the fluctuating weather conditions this week and alterations in water releases from Lost Creek Lake. The middle Rogue is dead for springers, and the lower Rogue is still too warm to get more than a handful of springers to bite each day.

That keeps the best bet on the upper Rogue. In the upper river, water flows out of Lost Creek Lake were back up to 2,200 cubic feet per second Wednesday after bouncing all over the place this week as biologist try to conserve as much water in Lost Creek Lake as possible for releases later this summer to protect fall chinook salmon while migrating through the lower Rogue. Back-bouncing roe with sandshrimp has been best, with straight roe and Kwikfish plugs equally in second place. There is very little tributary flow from Little Butte or Bear creeks. That has the flows at Dodge Bridge at just 2,320 cfs and just 2,568 cfs at the old Gold Ray Dam site.

Look for a lot more interest among anglers fishing downstream of Dodge Bridge beginning Tuesday when anglers can begin keeping wild chinook salmon.

Some early summer steelhead are being caught by chinook anglers, as well as by a few anglers targeting them with spinners or flies.

All wild chinook must be released unharmed from the Hatchery Hole downstream to the Fishers Ferry boat ramp until Tuesday, then just upstream of Dodge Bridge.

The middle Rogue remains quite slow for chinook fishing, even though fish are moving through Grants Pass pretty regularly. No real action has been reported lower than Gold Hill. A few summer steelhead have been caught, but the effort and action remain light. In the lower Rogue, water temperatures are making late-run chinook fishing very slow.

APPLEGATE - The river is open to trout fishing. All wild trout must be released unharmed. Fin-clipped trout can be kept, but they are not stocked there.

CHETCO - Spinners and streamer flies are working well for sea-run cutthroat trout, which are plentiful in the river during June.

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